The religions of contemporary Japan are four—Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Tenrikyo. Shinto and Tenrikyo are indigenous; Buddhism and Confucianism have been imported from China and Korea. Tenrikyo is of recent origin and has not yet the influence and standing of the others. Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism have existed here side by side for centuries. There is no great antagonism between them, as there is between Christianity and the ethnic religions. Many of the people are disciples of all three at the same time, taking their theology from Shinto, their soteriology and eschatology from Buddhism, and their moral and economic ideas from Confucianism. No inconsistency is felt in thus believing all three religions and worshiping at their shrines. Indeed, these three faiths have so commingled, the ideas and practices of one have so filtered into the others, that it is hard now to distinguish the pure teachings of each. In the minds of the masses they are not distinguished in detail. And yet as regards origin, history, and teachings they are separate and distinct faiths.
Shinto
Shinto may be called the national cult of Japan. The word "Shinto" means "the way of the gods." This system hardly deserves the name religion. It has no moral code, no dogmas, no sacred books. Originally it consisted chiefly of ancestor- and nature-worship, and of certain mythological ideas. A chief feature of it still is the worship of ancestors, who are exalted to a high pedestal in thought and worshiped as gods. The divine origin of the imperial family, and the obligation to worship and obey it, was a prominent teaching of Shinto. The ancestors of the imperial family were to be held in supreme reverence and were the objects of especial worship.
According to the Shinto of this period, there was neither heaven nor hell, but only an intermediate Hades. There was a sort of priesthood, but its duty was to watch over particular local gods, not to preach to the people. Pure Shinto taught that a man's whole duty lay in absolute obedience to the mikado and in following the natural promptings of his own heart.
Shinto was very much affected by the introduction of Buddhism, about the middle of the sixth century, and its further growth was checked. Buddhism adopted and largely absorbed it. Shinto gods were given a place in the Buddhist pantheon, and many of the Shinto ceremonies were adopted. But Shinto was completely overshadowed by Buddhism, and lay in a dormant state from the year 550 to 1700, a night of more than a thousand years.
A Shinto Temple.
Since the beginning of the eighteenth century a revival of Shinto has sprung up. Native scholars tried to call up the past, to find out what pure Shinto was before its corruption by Buddhism, and to teach it as the national faith. In this effort they were partially successful. The old Buddhistic accretions were largely thrown off, and many of the temples, stripped of their Buddhist ornaments, were handed over to the Shinto priests. Buddhism was disestablished, and Shinto again became the religion of the state. A Shinto "Council for Spiritual Affairs" was appointed, which had equal rank with the Council of State. This, however, was reduced gradually to the rank of a department, then to a bureau, later to a sub-bureau. At present Shinto is the state religion, in so far as there can be said to be any state religion; but in reality there is no established religion. The connection of the government with Shinto extends no further than the maintenance of certain temples and the attendance of certain officials on some ceremonies. Shinto enjoys a large amount of popularity because it is indigenous, while Buddhism and Confucianism labor under the disadvantage of being of foreign origin. The majority of the upper classes in Japan who to-day have any religion at all are Shintoists.
Buddhism